Well, regardless of who you are in independant rock, that is, regardless of whether you heed or screed Pitchfork, you must know that their top fifty albums are the most important list to come out for our little (big) crowd of people pretending we know more about music than others. Just ask Sufjan or Travis Morrison. The former is on the verge of being played alongside Dave as the between set music at every college open mic night in the country. The latter? probably scrubbing toilets with a potato peeler at the same coffee shop that Sufjan is being played, the poor guy. (actually I have it from a good source that his next album sounds kinda good? One can only hope).
So I won't bitch and bemoan the top fifty. I'll link it and you'll be happy, even though you've probably already read it and started bitching and bemoaning it to your buddies. I will say this: number one and two, for me, was kinda wtf? not in the wuhtuhfuh-are-you-thinking? way.
more in the wuhtuhfuh
thats-not-what-I-expected-because-those-two-albums-aren't-that-great, um, way.
Here's the top ten:
10: Scott Walker - The Drift
09: Boris - Pink
08: Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
07: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
06: Liars - Drum's Not Dead
05: The Hold Steady- Boys and Girls in America
04: Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
03: Joanna Newsom - Ys
02: TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
01: The Knife - Silent Shout
Pitchfork's top fitty
2 comments:
well, i'm pretty happy that the knife placed number one, cos it is (1) a rather unsung (until now, obviously) but incredible album and (2) not joanna newsom, which possibly would have been the most boring thing they could choose. Not because I dislike ys, i love it!, but because i can't think of a more "obvious" pick.
a quick stat count shows that the knife placed on 22 (of 37) ballots, placed #1 on 4 ballots, placed in the top 5 of 10 ballots, and on and on. i had this whole thing about how this pointed out the problem of democracy- or just voting in general but let's make things political (not really)- BUT WHAT I MEANT TO SAY IS that (at least at first it seemed like) a lot of people would consistently vote silent shout to around the 10 mark, adding up those points cos there would be enough of those in addition to the people like tim finney and philip sherburne (who didn't even vote, why is he writing blurbs?) who would put it up really high. but it seems like the zeitgeist was misread, lots of people did in fact love the knife record. or, that pitchfork isn't as painfully obvious (or as painfully populist) as we like to think it is.
as for tv on the radio, i haven't heard it yet, although i loved the songs live and i'll probably buy it soon. i will never understand why there is so much love for the hold steady. i am also slightly confused by boris placing so high, but that's cool, it's a pretty sweet record.
aside: whenever one of these surprise records places number one, the blurb is always in an apologetic, hand-wringing, "who'd'a thought!" kinda style. i wish these publications would just OWN they're picks already.
or um "their" picks. i shouldn't give a fuck having just dumped my brain on to 60 pages of other writing, but i do. hyper-professioinalization and all.
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